Today's NYT Easy Mode Crossword Answers & Hints
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 | Play NYT Easy Mode Crossword
The Easy Mode Crossword is a full 15×15 NYT grid with gentler clues, published as part of the New York Times Bonus Puzzles every Wednesday. We provide hints and today’s answers.
Click a square to reveal its letter. Get hints below.
The Easy Mode Crossword is a full 15×15 New York Times grid with gentler clues — the daily crossword without the Friday-and-Saturday teeth. It drops every Wednesday as part of the NYT Bonus Puzzles. Above you’ll find the grid, every clue and the complete solution for the week you’ve selected.
Reveal letters one at a time, open a single stubborn answer, or show the whole grid. Past weeks stay in the archive so you can work back through drops you missed.
What is the NYT Easy Mode Crossword?
The Easy Mode Crossword is one of six New York Times Bonus Puzzles, the weekly set of twists on the daily games. It is a standard 15×15 American-style grid, but clued to sit around Monday-or-Tuesday difficulty regardless of when it appears.
That combination is unusual and genuinely useful. Most solvers who want an easy crossword get a small one; Easy Mode gives you the full-size experience — long entries, a real theme, a proper grid — at a difficulty you can actually finish. It is the best on-ramp NYT publishes for solvers moving up from the Mini.
Tips for solving the Easy Mode Crossword
- Start with the fill-in-the-blanks. They are almost always the easiest clues in the grid and they seed letters across the whole board.
- Find the theme early. The long across entries usually share a gimmick. Once you spot it, the remaining theme answers get much easier to guess from a few letters.
- Work the short fill. Three- and four-letter entries have limited possibilities and unlock the crossings that the long answers depend on.
When does the Easy Mode Crossword come out?
Every Wednesday, alongside the rest of the NYT Bonus Puzzles, and it stays up for the whole week.
Frequently asked questions about NYT Easy Mode Crossword
A full 15×15 New York Times crossword clued at an easier level than the daily. It is one of the six NYT Bonus Puzzles, which drop together every Wednesday.
Yes — it is a standard 15×15 grid with a theme. Only the difficulty of the cluing differs, which makes it a good step up from the Mini.
Every Wednesday, with the rest of the NYT Bonus Puzzles. The same puzzle stays up for the whole week.
Use the date picker above the grid to jump to an earlier Wednesday. Every week we have covered stays in the archive.
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